Día de los Muertos

Published by ciriliarose

Meet Morty, our yarn version of a Día de los Muertos sugar skull! He will be featured in this week’s issue of KnitBits as we wrap up our Global Gifting series. I made Morty with about a dozen paper clips and the Ultra Alpaca left overs from my Sarape Shopper. There was no knitting involved and I expect that it would be a totally manageable fine motor skills activity for kids ages 6+ (adult supervision, please).

First, gather your supplies:

Assemble the bod, using a chain of paper clips:

Then start wrapping!

At the head, wrap halfway up the paper clip and then bend it in half.

Wrap as you would to make a yarn ball, turning to make sure it’s building up into a nice even sphere.

Finish your doll with some ‘bone’ embroidery using stem stitch or running stitch. Norah assured me that my clumsy needlework was ‘folksy’ and ‘authentic’…I’m going to go with that! Secure a knot at the back of the doll:

Then do your best stitchin’:

You might want to bend the exposed edges of the paper clips slightly so that the wrapped yarn doesn’t slip off. You can use your Morty doll as a charm on a bag or as a pendant. He’s awfully jangly so I think I’ll turn mine into a marionette puppet!

I made some of these last year with a few variations. I made the “skull” in white yarn and used six-strand embroidery thread to make a crown of rosettes (triple french knots) and leaves (petal stitch).

This year, I’ll be making some all white “mummies” with my god son and niece.